The Making of MiNDFOOD: Smart Thinking – Food & Drink

The Making of MiNDFOOD: Smart Thinking – Food & Drink

Go behind the scenes of the making of our food and drink pages each month.

The Making of MiNDFOOD: Smart Thinking – Food & Drink

Helping to create the Food & Drink pages of MiNDFOOD is a pretty neat job. Not only does it mean chatting to some of the latest innovators in the industry, tasting the newest food craze (house boiled bagels, cronuts… it’s a tough gig), but I also get to scour beautiful new cookbooks and read about some of the global food trends happening around the world (sticking Post-it® Notes from 3M in along the way always helps with keeping reference).

One of the first ports of call is trawling through the last few issues of MiNDFOOD to see what has been covered recently, for repetition’s sake. Hopefully, I’ve already hit-up some exciting new eateries throughout the month (no matter how gruelling the deadline, there’s always an excuse to check out the latest tasty hotspot around town), have received some innovative kitchen gadgets (that I’ve claimed with my 3M Post-it® flags), and met with or read about a handful of interesting people who are offering something new to the industry in some way.

Then it’s time to sit down with the food director and editor in chief and run my ideas past them for feedback. Once we’ve decided on the subjects, trends, restaurants, and chefs we want to profile, it’s time to queue the relevant interviews, and chase images from individual publicists, publishers, and venues.

During interviews, it’s always a good idea to have your questions close-by. A voice reorder in the handbag helps too, for spontaneous lunches that may quickly develop into an opportunity for a chat – impromptu interviews are the best kind of interviews.

Checking the latest flatplan is important to see how many pages the food and drink chapter rolls on for this month. Writing too little or too much makes the art team sad.

Then it’s transcribing and writing time; if it’s a busy day in the office, the headphones go on ­– especially if we’ve just received some form of food delivery (queue chatty team tea-break), and I transport myself to the scene of the story; desk globetrotting has always been a favourite pastime.

The pages are then ready to be subbed by our talented team of sub-editors, as I turn my attention to our website to make sure we’re reporting on the day’s happenings. But I’m interrupted by news floating in of a new burger joint that’s just opened up the street… better go and see/Instagram/Tweet what all the fuss is about!